The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-09-15
MISS BETTY"
The Important Things That Hap
-a pened to Her.

OF course can't expect you to love Miss
Betty as did-beautiful little woman with
her soft blue eyes, silver hair, and smile
as calm and sweet as ever graced the lips
of maiden lady'' who was far enough
advanced in life to have left the tumuIt and
restlessness Of youth far behind her. After
the confusion and hustle that always
relgned in our household, with papa for
ever busy, the boys coming and going, and
we girls, occupied first with school books,
then with millinery, and all the interests
that keep family Of young people con-
stantly in state of excitement and COM
motion, visit TO Miss Betty in her quiet
home seemed like an entrance into some
cool retreat, where peace and calm and
comfort always dwell.
Only two things had ever really happened
to Miss Betty, and it was not until the
morning of her fortieth birthday that the
second thing happened. Had not this great
event occurred l should have had no story
to tell-Miss Betty would have been an ex-
ample Of those lives, or is it nations? which
people say are happy in that they have no
history. But in this case the saying would
have been untrue. Out Of that second oc-
currence in her monOtonous life, out of the
tumult and trepidation ushered in with that
fortieth birthday has grown-well, love
story, which l am determined to spoil by
not telling it properly.
Miss Betty had, of course, been born
Like other people; she had struggled
through the measles and the mumps, and,
like SO many of the bright, lank and scrag-
gy daughters of our land, at the age Of
nineteen she had developed into a very
pretty young girl
II was at this stage of her experience
that the first thing happened. Naturally,
the event took the shape of a lover. John
Mcintosh, a manly, well-bred youth of
twenty-thrce, the son of a neighboring
farmer, had cast sheep-eyes at Miss Betty
during lively evening at singing school
Miss Betty had cast down her eyes and
blushed furiously. But all the same she
liked to have John look at her in that way,
and John found it out The result was
that the two young people fell in love with
each other.
Then came the Squire to the front The
Squire was Miss Betty's father. Just what
had gained him the title it would be diff
cult to say. He owned few more acres
than any body else within the township,
and had once come very near being made
Justice of the Peace. The distinction real
ly fell to retired physician living in the
same village, but the title that had grown
out Of the prospective dignity clung to
Squire Perkins. He himself valued it as a
Duke does his strawberry leaves.
When the Squire learned that John Nc
1utosh had actually had the audacity to
fancy that he might be allowed to marry
Miss Betty, his wrath was beyond control.
He stormed and he pounded, he stamped
and he roared. There threatened to repeat
itself in the old mansion the scene that had
taken place in Miss Betty's teething days,
when the Squire's only son George had
asked permission to marry a dainty little
blue-eyed girl, the daughter of a seam
stress. George had stood his ground, pock-
cted his fathers curse, and gone proudly
forth never to return. Miss Betty was
made of different material She went. ac-
cepted the inevitable, and sent two dried
rose-buds and three little ill-written notes
back TO John Mcintosh in a sandalwood
box. BE put the box in his pocket, went
10 the nearest seaport, and shipped for
Shanghai. Then peace returned to the
Squire's mansion, and Betty settled CALMLY
down into the business of becoming an Old
Elaid.
Z The years came and the years went. Her
features grew sharper, and her hair thinner:
there was even suspicion of rheumatism
swelling her finger joints. Betty grew old
nothing happened, and she had begun to
fancy that nothing ever would
There was a slight break in her life one
day, when party of neighbors' came in and
carried the Old Squire TO the churchyard,
and laid him by the.side of the wife he had
worried out Of existence three months after
Betty's birth. In many homes a death
makes great overturning. But in this one
the c1irrent OF life was scarcely disturbed.
The old Squire had been practically dead a
good many years before they laid him in the
grave. His iron frame had outIived his
mind. Paralytjc and helpless, Betty and
her one maid-of-all work waited on him like
a child. He had fallen out Of bis place in
life; SO when his helpless body finally dis.
appeared nobody missed him much. Betty
had less work to do, and so had Maria; but
otherwise her life flowed peacefully on.
sShe only became little thinner, her scani
locks alittle more sparse, and the rheu.
srnatism in her joints a little more indis-
Now the second event had arrived. Betty
gasped and trembled. After all these years
OF absolute peace and quies to have an